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Muntader al-Zaidi, shoe-thrower

Muntader al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at United States President George W. Bush, says he would do it again and that he was forced to write a letter of apology after being tortured in jail, the journalist’s brother claimed on Monday.

The prime minister’s office said last week that Muntader al-Zaidi had written a letter of apology. But Mr. Uday al-Zeidi said that the letter was written against the journalist’s will.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi’s trial on charges of assaulting a foreign leader is to begin December 31, a spokesman for the Iraqi Higher Judicial Court said.

Iraqi parliament members clashed Wednesday over the detention of an Iraqi television reporter who threw his shoes at U.S. President George Bush, officials said.

Disagreement erupted after lawmakers demanded that parliament take up the issue of the detained journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, 29, who threw his shoes at Bush, just missing his head Sunday during a Baghdad press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported.

Parliament ended Wednesday without a consensus on what action to take regarding the reporter, said a spokesman for Speaker of Parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani.

Al-Zaidi could be charged with assaulting a foreign head of state under the Iraqi penal code, Iraqi Central Criminal Court sources told CNN Wednesday. Al-Zaidi faces up to seven years in prison if he is charged with, and convicted of, offending the head of a foreign state, the Times reported.

Al-Zaidi met Tuesday with a judge who referred the case to trial, CNN reported. Al-Zaidi’s employer, al-Baghdadia television, confirmed the meeting took place at the reporter’s holding cell in Baghdad.